Jehovah`s Witness/religions being banned

Have you seen the post by rando about the fall of babylon the great there are several links to various news items about different religions being banned or wanting to be banned and he says that theses are signs of satans world coming to an end I want to know is was the banning of the witnesses in various countries over the last century also a sign that satans world is about end did you know that they were banned here in australia as spies during ww2 and had their buildings and radio stations taken away from them they were banned in canada as well and some african countries as well as in russia to mention a few

AnswerHello Bob

Thank you for writing, and sorry for the delay

It is certainly true that in many countries JWs have been put under ban. JWs were and are placed under bans because we do not vote or look for sides of any governments in any country, because of that many countries have at times concluded that we are against the government of the day. Our view is that it is Gods Government that we should support. That does not mean that we disobey the laws of the land where we live.

One of our obligations is to obey all the laws that a government has for its citizens except where those laws goes against Bible laws or principles. For example Jesus gave the command that all his followers should be involved in some way in the disciple making work (Matt 28:19 ) and that involves the preaching of the good news of Gods Kingdom (Matt 24:14 ) and if a government asks us or demands us to stop that activity we take the same view that the Apostle Peter had when he was asked to stop preaching as recorded in Acts 5:27-29 (KJV) “27 And when they had brought them, they set them before the council: and the high priest asked them, 28 Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name ? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us. 29 Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men .”

Our allegiance to our God means that we not being involved in any political system or supporting any war effort that a nation may have. Therefore many nations have seen us as disruptive, especially (but not always) when there is an armed conflict. We have been banned in some communist countries and countries that are predominately Islamic.

Because we remain neutral, and are young men are taught not to enlist in any of the armed forces it is often seen that we are preaching a subversive message, and many governments find that offensive

Now I looked at some of the links by that person and the reasons for the Governments wanting to ban some religions is quite different to to why JWs were banned. One of the articles says

The government blames the organization for violence and terrorism that has taken place since Mohamed Morsi was removed from power

So the reason for banning a religion seems to me to be the result of terrorist activities by that religion. Religious organisations of various types have long been involved in the political systems of the words in some way or another either by controlling the politics or by fighting against the government of the day in some way.

Our understanding of Bible prophecy from the Book of Revelation is that religions are like a harlot that cavorts with the governments when they should not. We understand from a pictorial prophecy. I do not want to go into all the details here as it would take to long but basically from Revelation 17 we get this picture - “1 And one of the seven angels that had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying: “Come, I will show you the judgment upon the great harlot who sits on many waters, 2 with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, whereas those who inhabit the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.”

Verse 3-14 give some more details. Then in verse 15-18 we are told 15 And he says to me: “The waters that you saw, where the harlot is sitting, mean peoples and crowds and nations and tongues. 16 And the ten horns that you saw, and the wild beast, these will hate the harlot and will make her devastated and naked, and will eat up her fleshy parts and will completely burn her with fire. 17 For God put [it] into their hearts to carry out his thought, even to carry out [their] one thought by giving their kingdom to the wild beast, until the words of God will have been accomplished. 18 And the woman whom you saw means the great city that has a kingdom over the kings of the earth.“

We understand that the harlot here is also refereed to as Babylon the Great – the capital of false religion. So, yes, we do understand that at Gods appointed time he will put it in the heart of the political system (Verse 17 ) to bring an end to false religion. Some of those news reports seem to be giving the impression that is where some governments are heading to ward turning on religion – not for being neutral like JWs – but for the opposite – causing problems.

Of you want to discuss our understand of those prophecies in more details send me a private message and I will send you my email address as this forum is limited as to the amount of that information that can be posted

Expertise

I AM one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, and I am always learning. I am NOT an expert in the full sense of the word but I can answer questions on the reliability of the NWT - the so called mind control problems-so called prophecies - how being a JW affects the individual and relatives and general practices and history of Jehovah’s Witnesses. >>WARNING<< Please be aware that there are people here who ARE NOTpracticing JWs. By all means ask these ones questions. Depending on the question you will get an honest answer, but, generally the answer you get, will mislead you as to what we believe, often because, they do not give ALL the relevant details. These ones will, have an agenda against JWs., and will at times give answers that are not correct in regard to JW teachings and practices. If you are after a answer from one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, please read some of the answers that the various experts have published before choosing someone. If you want to ask one of the NON JWs a question, that is fine, BUT if you want a balancing view after asking one of the NON JWs, ask a JW the same question.
PLEASE ALSO NOTE: There(have been)and are, some "experts" here who are NOT always the most courteous and polite, at times are actually quite rude, that applies to both JW's and non JW's and their answers may offend, especially when they get personal and attack the character of the person and not the message. Unfortunately some here that have done that. So it IS IMPORTANT to chose an "expert" that YOU feel will best suit YOU by reading some of their past answers
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Experience

I have been a publisher since 1964. When I first went on the internet I found a lot of negative information dealing with Jehovah’s Witnesses covering prophecy, mind control and what many said was a very bad translation of the Bible known as the NWT. It shook my faith. After may hours researching these topics I could see why some felt that way, but, I was also able to explain why there were these misleading views. I can now set matters straight for anyone that has negative information about Jehovah’s Witness to show them that such information is at best misleading and at worst dangerous lies.

Education/CredentialsI have been a student of the Bible for many years, am trying to teach myself Biblical Greek.
Was a public tax accountant for many years untill SEP 2009 when I gave it up due to health problems.